Week 2: Hearing the Voice of God,
The Role of Service
S: 1 Sam 3: 1 – 10 (NLT)
“Meanwhile, the boy Samuel served the Lord by assisting Eli. Now in those days messages from the Lord were very rare, and visions were quite uncommon. 2 One night Eli, who was almost blind by now, had gone to bed. 3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was sleeping in the Tabernacle near the Ark of God.”
O: Samuel was serving the Lord by assisting Eli. What we got to see in this passage is that Samuel’s ability to decipher God’s voice was tied to the fact that he had served under Eli. Imagine a waiter in a restaurant that is assigned to a diner and it is their job to take instructions and carry them out. In many high-end restaurants, the waiter must stand close by the diner’s table paying attention at all times and respond to any request, need, and whim that the diner may have. Samuel’s daily life revolved around service in the little things and in crucial temple activities, whatever Eli needed. In serving Eli, Samuel was serving the Lord and as a result, his heart was primed to hear him call. Serving requires you to be close to the recipient of your service. To serve effectively you must not only be paying attention but be close enough to see and hear them clearly. The truth of the matter is most times we might think that the main beneficiary of service is the person we are serving but when it comes to serving God, we are the main beneficiaries. God does not need our service, in truth he uses service as a method of reaching us. Service is God’s love language. He is less interested in the what than the closeness that it brings.
A: What opportunities to serve God have recently presented themselves that I can take up? Make a commitment to take action on this opportunity this week. Opportunities to serve will always arise and if you are feeling distant or detached, perhaps you need to find
P: Lord forgive me for not taking service seriously and misunderstanding the role service plays in my relationship with you. Thank you for the opportunity to know you more through service. Today I submit and commit my heart afresh to serving you with all that I am.